Weekend Book Club: How to Bake a Perfect Life

I'm preloading this as I rush out the door for a weekend at the beach so am going to keep it brief.

Barbara O'Neal is my favourite women's fiction author.

Her books are lush, evocative and so beautifully written the pages turn themselves.
She has an incredible gift for tapping into human emotion, then bringing that alive between the pages of her books.

Her latest, HOW TO BAKE A PERFECT LIFE, is no exception.

Filled with food and recipes and real characters and romance, you absolutely must read it.

She's the only author who is guaranteed to make me cry and I never, ever cry when I read.

Do yourself a favour and read this book.
Then glom her backlist.

You'll thank me.

What are you reading this week?

Weekend Book Club: Waiting for the postman

If there was one book you'd stand by the postbox for in the lead up to Christmas, which would it be?

For me, it's this one.

Being released on Dec 21st, I've placed my order with the Book Depository and will be eagerly scanning my mail box daily for its arrival.

If you haven't read Barbara O'Neal (Samuel) do yourself a favour.
After glomming her last year, she's my favourite author. Her prose is rich, lush and thoroughly gorgeous.

Here's the blurb for her latest:

An unforgettable novel that celebrates food, family, and the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters.
In a story as warm and embracing as a family kitchen, Barbara O’Neal explores the poignant, sometimes complex relationship between mothers and daughters—and the healing magic of homemade bread.

Professional baker Ramona Gallagher is a master of an art that has sustained her through the most turbulent times, including a baby at fifteen and an endless family feud. But now Ramona’s bakery threatens to crumble around her. Literally. She’s one water-heater disaster away from losing her grandmother’s rambling Victorian and everything she’s worked so hard to build.
When Ramona’s soldier son-in-law is wounded in Afghanistan, her daughter, Sophia, races overseas to be at his side, leaving Ramona as the only suitable guardian for Sophia’s thirteen-year-old stepdaughter, Katie. Heartbroken, Katie feels that she’s being dumped again—this time on the doorstep of a woman out of practice with mothering.
Ramona relies upon a special set of tools—patience, persistence, and the reliability of a good recipe—when rebellious Katie arrives. And as she relives her own history of difficult choices, Ramona shares her love of baking with the troubled girl. Slowly, Katie begins to find self-acceptance and a place to call home. And when a man from her past returns to offer a second chance at love, Ramona discovers that even the best recipe tastes better when you add time, care, and a few secret ingredients of your own.

So 'fess up.
Which book will you stand by the mail box for this Christmas?